In-Cog-Nito

Thanks to Jonathan adding Intrade quotes to the right, I’ve been noticing the Bush futures have been on a tear the last two weeks, more or less coinciding with the Swiftvets for truth campaign. Nice to see.

Here’s an excellent article by the New York Times about Lukoil, Russia’s largest oil company (now that Yukos is on the verge of bankruptcy), and the oligarchs in general.

Very well written, and insightful in terms of detail. As a bonus, no strong liberal/political bias. Cynic in me says that’s because it’s written by a contributor rather than a staff reporter. In any case, content trumps provenance in my book, so enjoy.

Here’s an update to a comment I posted in Lex’s Gay Marriage post where I noted that Liberals don’t reproduce as much as Conservatives.

Drudge has a link to this article in the Wall Street Journal’s Opinionjournal that quantifies it to an extent:

“Abortion has caused missing Democrats–and missing liberals. For advocates so fundamentally committed to changing the face of conservative America, liberals have been remarkably blind to the fact that every day the abortions they advocate dramatically decrease their power to do so. Imagine the number of followers that their abortion policies eliminate who, over the next several decades, would have emerged as the new liberal thinkers, voters, adherents, fund-raisers and workers for their cause.”

Good article by Larry Kudlow:

“It rarely occurs to economic thinkers that people work or invest in order to generate the highest possible after-tax return. When it pays more, after tax, to take investment risks, more individuals are willing to change their behavior and assume greater risk. Tax risk less, and get more of it. Tax production more, and get less of it.

This was the essence of Reaganomics. It recognized the power of the individual to make choices in daily economic life. It also recognized the crucial economic theory of marginality. At the margin, what truly matters is the extra work effort, the extra investment dollar and the extra unit of profit, all measured in after-tax terms.”

So Tenet finally resigned.

He, or at least his immediate family who knew, should have bought a ton of futures on himself prior to resigning. Would have made some nice pocket change. I take it since there are no insider trading laws against political futures, it would have been legit. Oh well…

(tongue in cheek post folks, tongue in cheek. I do not condone or recommend insider trading in any form with regards to the real stock market.)